John Carter Vincent: Difference between revisions
m r2.7.1) (robot Adding: ja:ジョン・カーター・ヴィンセント |
RjwilmsiBot (talk | contribs) m →References: Adding Persondata using AWB (7822) |
||
| Line 29: | Line 29: | ||
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
||
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = |
||
| DATE OF BIRTH = |
| DATE OF BIRTH = August 19, 1900 |
||
| PLACE OF BIRTH = |
| PLACE OF BIRTH = |
||
| DATE OF DEATH = |
| DATE OF DEATH = December 3, 1972 |
||
| PLACE OF DEATH = |
| PLACE OF DEATH = |
||
}} |
}} |
||
Revision as of 13:24, 12 September 2011
John Carter Vincent (August 19, 1900 – December 3, 1972) was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and China Hand. Born in Seneca, Kansas,Vincent graduated from Mercer University in 1923 and was appointed Foreign Service Officer in the same year. He then served in Changsha, Hankow, Swatow, Peking, Mukden, Nanking, and Dairen, before becoming Counsellor to the American Embassy in Chongqing in 1942. He became Director of the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs in 1945, then Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary to Switzerland, 1947-51. He was diplomatic agent in Tangier 1951-52 , before being forced to resign from the Foreign Service in 1952. He retired to Cambridge, Massachusetts and died there in 1972.
Wartime Activities
Vincent was among the China Hands who wanted to gather intelligence from and provide materiel to the Communist Armies, then at least theoretically under Chiang's command, as part of the Allied coalition for a future invasion of Japan. When he accompanied Vice-President Henry Wallace on a state visit to the Soviet Union and Chongqing in June, 1944, he helped to persuade the Generalissimo to finally grant permission for the Dixie Mission, which opened contact with the Communist base areas. Vincent and the China Hands also argued that the Chinese Communists had their own genuine domestic roots that might trump any ideological loyalty to the USSR, as was occurring at the time with Tito's Yugoslavia. The defenders of the China Hands argued that it was exactly this perspective in China policy that Nixon and Kissinger began to implement in 1972.
End of career
In 1951 Vincent attacked by Senator Joseph McCarthy and accused of having been a member of the Communist Party by former Party activist Louis F. Budenz. [1] Budenz testified in the summer of 1951 that Vincent had been a member of the Communist Party. Budenz, however, indicated he had no personal knowledge of this, basing his opinion on what he had overheard other party leaders say about Vincent, in the context of expressing their hostility to the anti-communism of Ambassador Patrick Hurley, whom they thought Vincent could replace.
Similar accusations were made against all the China Hands, based on their allegations of ineptitude and corruption of Chiang Kai Shek's regime. After having been cleared by numerous administrative security panels of any disloyalty, in December 1952 the Civil Service Loyalty Review Board by a one vote margin found reasonable doubt regarding Vincent's loyalty and in 1953 Secretary Dulles requested Vincent's resignation. [2] Dean Acheson, Truman's Secretary of State, as he had with Alger Hiss, steadfastly defended Vincent. Acheson felt that Vincent, like the China Hands generally, was being unfairly and demagogically maligned for honestly conveying inconvenient facts and tried to intervene with Dulles to save Vincent's career.
He died on December 3, 1972.[3]
Notes
- ^ M. Stanton Evans, Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe Mccarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies (New York: Crown Forum, 2007): 42-3,
- ^ Memorandum by the Secretary of State in the Matter of John Carter VincentMemorandum by the Secretary of State in the Matter of John Carter Vincent
- ^ "John Carter Vincent Dies. Specialist on China Policy. Diplomat Was Dismissed Despite Loyalty Report". New York Times. December 5, 1972. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
John Carter Vincent, a China specialist and former director of the State Department's Office of Far Eastern Affairs, died Sun- day ...
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
External Sources
References
- Gary May, China Scapegoat: The Diplomatic Ordeal of John Carter Vincent (Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1979).